Ten to One
by juliaspov
Summary: AU Set around ten years in the future. Ianto is injured, Dr Martha Jones runs some scans, Jack must control his emotions. Jack/Ianto
1. Chapter 1

"How can it by my fault? I'm the one that's injured."

Ianto Jones had his arm wrapped tightly around the shoulders of Jack Harkness and was limping severely. His left pant leg was shredded and bloody from the knee down. The two men were followed closely by Gwen Cooper-Williams who was trying not to laugh at the two of them. All three were dripping wet after being outside chasing weevils in a heavy downpour.

"If you hadn't distracted me my shot wouldn't have gone wide and I could have brought down that weevil before it dove at you and bit your leg."

"I distracted you? I don't know what you're talking about" Ianto tried to look innocent but failed.

The group moved to the autopsy bay and Dr. Martha Jones looked up from her work bench where she was fiddling with an alien looking box.

Jack feigned anger. "Having your lover start to lick and bite your neck? Yes, I would say that that was a distraction"

Catching Gwen's eyes the two women smiled at each other and Gwen headed off to her own desk leaving the two men in the caring hands of the doctor.

"You looked damn good in the rain. I just wanted to know if you tasted as good as you looked."

Martha saw the look that passed between the two men and quickly took Ianto from Jack.

"Okay you two, break it up. Ianto, let's get you up on the table so I can take a look at that leg, and Jack, go away. I can't have you ravishing my patient until I get him patched up."

"Listen to the doctor, Ianto. She said I could ravish you later so don't make any other plans."

Martha rolled her eyes and shooed him out of the room.

"Okay let's see what the damage is."

She threw his wet coat onto a chair and pulled out a pair of scissors to cut away the ruined pant leg. Ianto sighed.

"There goes another perfectly good suit."

The doctor wasn't listening. She had gotten some gauze and antiseptic and was busy cleaning the wound. "Did I hear you say this was a weevil bite?"

"Yep. The thing dove at me out in the park. Hurts like hell."

"Huh."

Martha pulled an overhead light down over his leg for a closer look then reached out and grabbed the box she had been working on when the group had walked in. It was small, about the size of an old fashioned TV remote control with a small display screen and a number of colored buttons in different shapes. She pointed it at his leg and pushed a couple buttons. A short antenna with a sharp end emerged from the front of the box. It looked vaguely sinister.

Ianto cleared his throat nervously. "What do you have there?" He hoped she wasn't planning to stick that thing into his leg. He was in enough pain as it was.

She brought the antenna close to his leg and pushed another button. There was a slight humming noise and Ianto could feel the pain in his wound slowly melt away to be replaced with a warm numbness. Amazing.

"I like your new toy."

Martha pushed another button again, turning the box off apparently, as she set it back on her work bench and went back to cleaning up Ianto's leg.

"It's not new. It's an old toy but I found some new tricks. Remember the L.F.A.T?" At Ianto's confused look she laughed. "I was calling it the 'life force age thingy' until I could come up with a cool name for it."

"I remember. You scanned my ears and told me they were twenty five years three months and two days old. That must have been, what, ten years ago? What made you bring it out now?"

"I pull it out every once in a while and play with the buttons to see what it can do. You should be happy, I found the anesthetic button just today. You came at just the right time for me to test it. "

"Lucky me." He relaxed back on the autopsy table with a tired sigh.

"Are you okay?" Ever the doctor, worrying over her patient.

"I could use a pillow?" He smiled. "It's nothing. I was just up very early this morning and have been running ever since. So what else have you found out about your new-old toy?"

Martha's eyes lit up with excitement as she picked it up again.

"Besides the age thing and the anesthetic, there is an alien microbe reader, a heat detector and a trace-metal detector."

"Does it have anti-missile capabilities?"

"Oh ha-ha." She aimed the box at him again. "Careful or I'll tell you your life force expectancy." Her laughter died out as she looked at the readout on the display screen. She pushed another button and pursed her lips in thought.

"What? What is it?" Ianto sat up on his elbows.

Martha ignored him. "Gwen, would you come here a minute?" She fiddled with the buttons again, mumbling to herself and pointed it at Ianto.

Gwen appeared at the top of the stairs. "What do you need?" She spied the box in Martha's hand and held up her hands. "Oh no. I don't want to be your test subject for anything new."

Martha waived her hand. "I think it may be broken and I need to test it on someone. It's just a scanner. Nothing bad ."

Ianto lay back down and relaxed. "It's French-Alien. It's called a L'Fat. It will tell you if you are carrying atomic weapons in your pockets or have tiny aliens living in your ears."

Martha pointed the scanner at Gwen and pushed the buttons. A look of worry crossed her face and she repeated the scan on herself. She turned away quickly and started pulling out computers and sensors. She stuck sensor leads to Iantos forehead and started to open his shirt. Mumbling to herself the whole time.

Gwen caught a few words, "Deterioration rate… life force strength…" and didn't wait to hear more. She turned and ran, calling for Jack. As she burst into his office he looked up from his phone call. Her worried expression prompted him to tell the person on the line that he would call them back and he dropped the phone.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Martha's mumbling to herself about deterioration something and life force and she's got Ianto hooked up to all sorts of machines and running scans."

As soon as Gwen said Ianto's name Jack was out the door.

"Doctor? Talk to me Martha! Ianto are you okay?" He practically jumped down the stairs into the autopsy bay and stood in front of the doctor. He reached out towards Ianto and relaxed slightly when he felt the warmth of his hand as it slipped into his.

"Oh good. You're here." Before he could open his mouth to speak she stuck a group of sensor leads to his forehead and the back of his neck and turned back to her computers mumbling to herself again.

"Elevated rate…" She turned back to him. "Is that normal?" she asked.

Jack opened his mouth to ask a question of his own but she waved him silent and turned back to the computer.

Jack looked a Ianto who was back to relaxing on the table and touched his lovers cheek.

"I don't think it's anything bad." Ianto said with a smile. "She mumbles when she's intrigued but silent when it's serious. She's been doing a lot of mumbling."

"Gwen, Come here." Gwen came down the stairs hesitantly and Martha stuck a number of sensor leads to her forehead and back of the neck the same as Jack and Ianto. No one dared move with all the sensor wires strung between the machines.

"Hmm. Normal." Martha checked another computer. "Jack, hug Gwen."

He complied.

"Nothing. Okay, kiss her."

He raised an eyebrow but followed orders and gave Gwen a chaste kiss on the lips.

"Still nothing. Try again, but this time put a little life into it."

"Should I be getting jealous?" Ianto asked mildly.

"Good thing Rhys isn't here or we'd have to scrape Jack off the floor."

Jack kissed Gwen again trying to put a little heat into it. It wasn't bad, but since she was his friend and she had a big husband he didn't feel right doing it.

"Still nothing." Martha unceremoniously ripped the sensor leads off of Gwen causing her to wince and rub her forehead, then stuck the leads to herself. "Okay, now kiss me."

"I'm starting to enjoy this experiment"

Martha hit his arm. Jack kissed her with a little more heat than he kissed Gwen. Martha wasn't married.

She broke the kiss and turned back to her computers pulling the sensors off.

Jack was starting to get impatient. "Well this was all very interesting. May I take Ianto back to my office now?"

Martha was still entranced by what her sensors were telling her. "Okay, now kiss Ianto."

"That's what I plan to do once I get him back to my office."

"Oh just kiss him. You must be the most frustrating man I know."

Jack laughed and turned to Ianto.

"I was wondering if I was going to get a turn."

"I'll give you a turn just as soon as I can get rid of these two women and all those sensors."

Ianto gave him a wicked smile. "Maybe we should leave the sensors on. I've never tried to overload computers like that before."

"Oi! Get on with it."

Jack smiled and bent over to kiss Ianto. As usual as soon as their lips met Jack knew that one kiss would not be enough. He moved in closer for another one.

"Amazing. Do it again." Jack didn't know what Martha was looking at but he willingly gave Ianto another kiss.

Gwen cleared her throat in embarrassment as Iantos arms started to slide around Jacks waist.

Jack pulled away to look into Iantos eyes.

"Amazing. Do it again." Ianto mimicked the doctors order.

"Okay you two. Experiment's over." Martha started pulling the sensor leads off the two men.

"Ianto, stay there so I can finish bandaging your leg. Everybody else go away." She unceremoniously pushed Jack away from Ianto and up the stairs. Gwen followed, laughing at the abrupt change in subject.


	2. Chapter 2

Martha had quickly finished bandaging Iantos leg letting him leave. She stayed down in the autopsy bay for the rest of the evening and far into the night. Jack and Ianto gave up on their idea to try and overload Martha's medical sensors, at least for the moment, and had a quiet night monitoring the Rift and watching movies in Jacks office with the door closed. At least that was what they said they were doing. Martha was smart enough not to find out for sure, but she didn't remember seeing a television anywhere in Jacks office.

The next morning the small group met in the conference room. Martha stood by the monitor in the front of the room. A wave of information flowing across it's screen. The matte brown box from yesterday sat on the table in front of her. Jack was at his usual place at the head of the table with Ianto on his left.

"Jack, remember when I first started? I came across this little box that we didn't know how to use?"

"It's called a L'Fat." Ianto broke in.

"Cool name. French. I like it."

"As I was saying, ten years ago I could only make it do one thing. Give us the age of an object. Anything, either animal, vegetable, or mineral. Far more accurate than anything we currently use for telling how old an artifact actually is. I couldn't get it to work on you though Jack, but I'm still working on it." She looked frustrated. "Anyway, I tested it on everybody and the readings seemed be what I thought they would be. That was almost ten years ago. Yesterday when Ianto came in with the weevil bite I was playing with it again and ran a scan on him. The readings that came back seemed skewed so I ran the same scan on Gwen and then on myself. Our readings came back as I thought they should. I ran the scan on Ianto again but got the same funny numbers. That's when I pulled out my big sensors. And hooked everyone up. Ianto how long have you and Jack been together?"

He didn't seem fazed by her sudden change in subject.

"Nine years, five months and fourteen days. We dabbled for a few years before we became official but I don't count that."

"Why not? That was some good dabbling."

"I'll explain later Jack"

Martha broke in, "So, Ianto, you're thirty six years old?"

"That's right. In a couple more years I'll be the same age as Jack's file says he is. No more teasing him about robbing the cradle." He gave Jack a loving smile which was returned.

"Well, see, that's the problem. It's not going to be a couple more years."

Their heads jerked in her direction. Jack stood up, a hand reaching out to grip Iantos shoulder, but Ianto was the first to speak.

"Does this have to do with the life expectancy reading you were threatening me with? But you were mumbling! You don't mumble when it's serious. What is it, am I dead in a year?"

"Oh, I'm sorry! No, no. You're going to be fine!"

Jack sat back down, but he remained close to Ianto holding onto his hand.

"I just hope you like Jack a lot."

Jack leaned forward into the conversation. "Why is that? And what's with all the scans you did?"

"You and Ianto seem to have a special connection."

Jack smiled. "I could have told you that."

Martha pulled out a chair and sat down speaking to Ianto. "There was no connection between him and Gwen and nothing between him and me, but as soon as his lips touched yours my sensors went a little crazy. Of course it took some time to analyze the data, and I've only just started, but it appears as if you two are connected somehow."

"Can you explain?"

Martha paused, gathering her thoughts. "Okay, you've heard all those sweet stories about elderly couples that love each other so much that if one dies the other soon follows?" Jack and Ianto nodded their heads simultaneously. "Those couples have a strong connection. I believe that you and Jack have the same type of connection but in a slightly different way."

"I'd like to run a little experiment." She turned to Jack. "May I kill you?"

"Not bloody likely!" Ianto started to stand up. Jack pulled him back to sitting in his chair.

"No, I don't think so. Ianto doesn't like it when I die, and I find it most uncomfortable. You'll have to find something else to try."

"Yeah, you're probably right." She looked strangely disappointed at not being able to kill Jack. A thoughtful look came over her face. "You haven't died in a long time, have you? How long has it been?"

"Well since it distresses Ianto so much I try to avoid situations that might bring about my untimely demise." He was trying to lighten the conversation and Ianto gave him a slight smile. "I'd say it's been three or four years."

"And how long before that?"

"I don't really know. Maybe a couple of years. Why?"

"When I first met you it seemed like you were dying all the time. Two or three times a year. Sometimes more. You didn't care if you died."

Jack shrugged. "I probably didn't care if I was killed. In fact I remember thinking that it might be nice to finally be able to die. But that was before I had Ianto. This man means so much to me now that I'll do anything to make sure he's not hurt by anyone. Even me."

"Except for letting me get mauled by random weevils." Iantos voice was thick with emotion but he needed to lighten the conversation before he was forced to grab his lover and have his wicked way with him on the conference room table. Jacks eyes glinted at Ianto. He seemed to know exactly what he was thinking.

Martha continued, "Jack, you are so full of life that after a while it starts building up inside of you. You start to act a little wild, a little crazy and you end up putting yourself in danger. This usually resulted in you getting killed which used up that surplus of life force. Since you found Ianto you stopped putting yourself in danger and getting killed so that extra life force kept building up inside of you looking for an outlet. It found one through your love of Ianto."

Martha finished talking, looking pleased with herself.

Jack looked at her doubtfully. "So?"

"So don't you see? You are giving your extra life force to Ianto. Your love for Ianto is letting the extra life force siphon out of you, keeping you from exploding, and adding to Ianto's normal life force." She smiled at the two men. "When I first used the L'Fat on Ianto approximately ten years ago he was twenty five which the scan agreed with. When I scanned him again yesterday the readings should have come back saying Ianto was thirty five but they came back showing he was only twenty six. I thought that the calibration must have been off so I tested it on Gwen and myself and the scan came back with our correct ages."

"So let me get this straight. I'm not dying as often as I used to so to keep me from exploding I have been giving my life to Ianto. And this has stopped him from aging."

"Oh, he's still aging, but at a much slower rate than normal. About one year for every ten that passes. Not anywhere near as slow as you age, Jack, but it's definitely slowed."

Ianto looked at Jack and was surprised to see tears in his eyes. He stood up and pulled Jack into an embrace. Jack gripped him tightly and buried his face in his neck.

"I didn't want to love you because I knew you would die within the blink of an eye, but I couldn't help myself." he murmured into Ianto's shoulder. "I grew to love you so much that it was a constant ache trying to hide it from you, from myself." He pulled back and ran a gentle hand across Iantos face. "When I finally told you that I loved you it was like being set free. The fear was still there but I vowed to live each moment with you to the fullest. Now I find that I will be able to love you for longer than I had ever imagined and I'm happier than I have ever been in my entire life. I love you so much."

Ianto felt the tears well up in his eyes and spill over at Jacks declaration of love. He pulled his head down to his own trying to convey all the love he felt for Jack in that one kiss.

Neither man was aware of Martha quietly leaving the room. They were in a world of their own. One that they would be able to share for a very long time.


End file.
